Dec 15, 2024
Rosendale Rumpus – some of this convo was not captured due to the volume of the rumpus.
Alex, Lauren, AJ, by Maria.
Alex: My name is Alex.
M: Tell us what you like or love about Rosendale?
Alex: Sure. I think that one thing that I love about Rosendale is that we live in a small town so we’re able to walk into the Main street and access all the shops and all the stuff that’s there and the community events, and we have access to nature with the rail trail and the hiking and everything like that all just walking on our door. I think that’s something that’s unique, you know, sort of in this kind of area. You still feel like it’s sort of quiet.
M: And why is that important to you?
A: It’s important to me because Robie had been living in a city and so we like that we still have that ability to walk around to things and we have to get into a car we can bike to things so we’re a big cyclist so I think that helps us with our quality of life.
M: Yes, thanks. Okay, and if you could just pass that over and just introduce yourself.
Lauren: I’m Lauren.
M: Thank you. And what do you like or love about Rosendale?
L: We’ve lived here about five years, and everyone’s been really kind. We have really nice neighbors. I feel really welcome.
M: And why is that important? It’s a stupid question, but I want to ask, why is it important to you?
Lauren: I think that I’m also looking for some community and feeling like, we can make a home somewhere. That was being able to be part of a small town that’s still connected to other things.
M: Terrific.
AJ: My name is AJ.
M: And what do you like or love about Rosendale?
AJ: For me, it’s a beautiful place. It’s great. Quiet, beautiful View. Thank you, really. I really love it. I would love to live in Rosendale. I like to be part of the history of Rosendale. It’s my people. I like to be part of the history of Rosendale. [?]
M: If you could see something better for Rosendale, or if you have any ideas for Rosendale, other things that you think might be nice to have here that we don’t have to be part of Rosendale. Any thoughts about that? Anything to make it a better place?
AJ: I think it would be good to have a nice hospital
L: I don’t know what new initiatives there are, regarding affordable housing, diversity in housing, like, apartments, modular homes.
M: And why is that important to you?
L: Because I think there’s a lot of housing that is really easy for… People with a lot of money, they want to have second homes and then they kind of, like, hold those. And they don’t actually live here. [indistinct] I know that I’m sure the zoning process here takes forever. And so building new things takes forever. I don’t know what the options there are for more housing around here. I would be supportive of that.
A: I guess just building off what I was saying before, I made love to see this more expansion of, like, access to the rail trail. I think it’d be nice to have, like, some sort of bike lane or something that comes from the rail trail into town, somehow. And maybe even, like, they’re sort of the canal walkway, but it’d be nice to, like, make that a little nicer so that it could, like, bike on it easily, and kind of that would kind of make it easier for people to, like, bike to things, as opposed to trying to be on Main Street, which, you know, has [problems?].
M: And what makes biking really important to you?
A: Well, it’s just part of our lifestyle, and I think it’s just a, like, great way to build people to see the area, and I think that, you know, especially with, you know, it supports local businesses in the sense that we’ve got lots of people, like, the state is promoting with this sort of this Empire trail, which is part of the Wallkill Road trail. You know, we saw, like, it was, like, a New York, you know, like, you know, like, tourist magazine in the picture on, like, on the back, on the back, or whatever. It was, like, you know, of the Trestle, people, like, smiling with the bike on this. So I think that it’s something that the state’s promoting, who I think that, like, making sure that people know that they can access Rosendale, and making it accessible to those kind of people who are going through, I think it’d be great for those businesses. So, yeah, I think that’s important.
M: any other thoughts that you have that you’d like to share with people?
L: Lowering the speed limit in town. If there’s ever a time when it would be helpful for us to come to the Town Board meeting to advocate for something like that.
